iAm: Louisa Koh

A 30-something from sunny Singapore who's tried her hand at lots of things, such as selling skin care & make-up, working in a (boring) corporate setting, trying to carve a singing career, giving private tuition, being a fitness instructor, writing/editing etc...

Besides exasperating her parents to no end, she loves experimenting with new make-up looks, uncovering the best make-up & skin care products, modelling for herself before the camera, singing at the top of her lungs (with preferably no one to hear it), and writing whatever, whenever (as you can already tell).

Nuts about nails!

Hi lovelies!

I know I haven’t updated in a while, but I’m back! If you look at the sidebar to your right, I’ve inserted a new widget with my most recent Instagram photographs on slideshow, under the header iPeektures. You can click on any picture for an enlarged view.

This is the first time I’m posting about nails, because I developed an interest in nails only of late (like about 2 months ago). My sister’s always been the one to use nail polish, not me, and I never really understood what the fuss was about till now.

Late bloomer I know… but I guess I never really saw doing my nails as a form of art till recently. Or maybe I was just never good at it so didn’t bother to explore?

This is my most recent DIY manicure:

Most recent manicure, with matte black French tips and some Konad stamping on the accent nail (without flash)

Anyhow, ever since my sis has been pinning pictures of nail art on to Pinterest, I’ve been taking an interest in pretty nails too.

A few bottles of new nail polish later, my cousin offered to pass me her Konad set of 4 different image plates, 3 different Konad special nail polish colours (2 bottles of each colour), and 2 sets of stampers and scrapers. Hurrah!!

(With flash) Cute cat design from Konad plate m2, stamped with Konad’s special nail polish in white. Cat’s a bit smudged, due to the thick white polish not having dried completely :|.

I’ve gone through at least 7-8 manicures now, and about 3 pedicures, all DIY, and gotten relatively comfortable with scotch taping my nails for french tips.

The pictures you see feature my most recent manicure of OPI’s Germany collection’s Unfor-greta-bly blue, a deep, rich, royal blue leaning a bit on the teal side. This is 2 coats, with Sally Hansen’s Double Duty as base coat, and Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat on top.

(With flash) Inverted image so you can see the cute cat stamping on right hand ring finger

After that, I Konaded the accent (ring) nails, using Konad image plate m2, and Konad’s special white polish. The Konad stamping is sandwiched between 2 Seche Vite (SV) layers. I typically use SV top coat before stamping, so that if I make a mistake, I can wipe off the botched stamping without removing the base colour.

After Konading, I finished off with matte black French tips. Matte black French tips were painted on after scotch taping, using OPI’s Lincoln Park After Dark Matte, which is from a discontinued line of matte polish from OPI.

(Without flash) Left hand, with the same cat stamping on ring finger, and matte black French tips, inspired by Chloe’s Nails

I initially wanted to use a regular pastel blue nail polish for the stamping, one called Color Club’s Take Me To Your Chateaux, but the polish couldn’t reach into some of the grooves on the stamping plate, leaving me with an irregularly shaped cat. I tried a few times, and decided to go with the Konad polish in the end, to be safe.

(With flash) A closer and upright look of the cute cat Konad stamping. This nail surface got a little roughened with my stamping. Again it’s a little smudged when I applied SV atop the konadicure.

If you’re interested in recreating this look, I got my OPI Unfor-greta-bly blue and OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Matte from Nail Vibe SG at Cross Street, both at S$12.50 each. I also got my Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat there, during a Groupon promotion for a bottle at $7.90, instead of the usual $13.

However, I think the OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Matte is no longer in stock. You can instead use a regular black polish, and coat with Essie Matte About You, a matte top coat finisher, also available at Nail Vibe, or other vendors like D.Y.O.N. International, Nail Splash or even Qoo10 Gmarket.

(Without flash) Right hand close-up of matte black French tips

I’ve done some makeup looks for Lime Crime’s Lip Noir Fortnight contest held early last month, and am in the process of selecting and watermarking my pictures for the post, so look out for it! And, if you look at my Instagram iPeektures feed on the right, you’ll see that my pedicure is a reverse matte one, complementing this manicure. It’s so fitting for Halloween, doncha think? 😛

(Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated to Nail Vibe SG in any way, nor was I sponsored any products to do a review. I bought the products of my own accord.)